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A new large-scale sculpture will greet visitors arriving to the campus of Western New Mexico University. The new sculpture, Collaboration, is the culmination of four years of design and fabrication by Professor Emeritus Michael Metcalf, who taught in the Department of Expressive Arts for three decades. Constructed of steel and stone, the sculpture consists of three arced spires, between which is suspended a five-thousand-pound boulder of local Burro Mountain granite, courtesy of the United States Forest Service. Metcalf, who retired from WNMU this year, received a sabbatical leave in 2021 to begin work on the sculpture. The sabbatical was his only compensation for the work. He also worked closely with WNMU President Joseph Shepard and the university’s Art Acquisition Committee to ensure that he had the necessary approval before launching the project. Metcalf said that the sleek look of the stainless steel is consistent with his other sculptures. “I like a minimalist...

In New Mexico, there are only enough licensed child care spots for about 50% of infants and toddlers whose parents work, according to the NM Early Childhood Education and Care Department, suggesting an urgent need to increase capacity in early childhood care and education. Western New Mexico University aspires to do its part to reduce the need by constructing a new Child Development Center using funding from this year’s General Obligation Bond 3. The need for this expansion becomes clear when one considers that in the first few years of life, over 1 million new neural connections develop every second, a pace never repeated again, according to UNICEF. Quality early childhood care and education while these neural connections are forming can impact the entire trajectory of a child’s life. One of the crucial effects of quality care and education in early childhood is that it improves children’s foundational skills and school readiness, according to Cynthia Martinez, Dean of...

Western New Mexico University Artist-in-Residence Elizabeth Gerdeman is well familiar with art residencies, having traveled as far as Armenia and Switzerland on previous residencies. Her current position at WNMU, though, is her first in the American southwest. “I knew that I wanted to do an artist’s residency in the southwest—I was looking particularly in New Mexico—but I hadn’t found that nice combination of what this residency seems to offer: to be immersed within both an academic and local community imbued in the arts and surrounded by wilderness,” she explained. The university’s location is especially important to Gerdeman because of the nature of her work. “I am driven by places that exist at the intersections of nature and culture,” she said, “where my interdisciplinary practice of painting, installation, and site-specificity continues to evolve from experiences in such varied and complex areas of the world.” Gerdeman, who holds a BFA from the...

Western New Mexico University has a lot at stake on this November’s ballot. In addition to General Obligation Bond 3, which would fund the construction of a new Early Childhood Center for infants and toddlers, the university is also invested in General Obligation Bond 2, which benefits libraries statewide. GO Bond 2 funding is designed to support supplemental library acquisitions, including books, equipment, electronic resources, collaborative library resources and information technology projects. Bond 2 would provide approximately $19 million for public libraries, school libraries, tribal libraries and academic libraries. If it passes, $6 million would go to fund academic libraries across the state, according to Samantha Johnson, the director of WNMU J. Cloyd Miller Library. A portion of that money “would be spent on library databases purchased by a statewide consortium and available to all public higher education institutions in New Mexico,” said Johnson. These...

Faculty members in the WNMU Counseling Program recently presented at the Rocky Mountain Association for Counselor Education and Supervision on their efforts to promote competencies in providing remote mental health services. The Counseling Program has a nationally registered telemental health training program that all counseling students are required to complete. “Students who have completed the program meet the training requirement necessary to becoming a Board Certified Telemental Health Provider,” said Associate Professor Benjamin Jenkins. “Ours is the only counselor preparation program in the nation to have such a requirement.” Through telemental health counseling, counselors and clients can meet remotely with the aid of technology, such as video conferencing. This kind of counseling is especially needed in rural areas, said Assistant Professor William Lane, who leads the Counseling Program. “Many rural and frontier communities have limited access to licensed...

The Western New Mexico University School of Business hopes to grow its dual degree agreements with Mexican universities. Through these agreements, students are able to earn degrees from both universities, the Mexican university and WNMU, at the same time. WNMU currently has fifteen students in the program, all students from Mexico studying in Silver City. The program has not yet had a U.S. student study in Mexico; however, that opportunity is available, said Assistant Professor Iván Ibarra Sánchez, who oversees the program for WNMU. In addition to having a rich cultural immersion, said Ibarra, students from the U.S. would also enjoy economic benefits if they took part in the opportunity. “They will be spending three semesters there, and they will be paying tuition as students, which is about $300 dollars per semester, and food and housing is a lot more affordable down there,” he said. “So that is a win-win.” The students from Mexico studying at WNMU have the...

Founded in 1893, Western New Mexico University is situated on the traditional lands of the first inhabitants of the southwest. The university recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples, past and present, that have protected and stewarded these lands since time immemorial. As an institution committed to diversity and inclusion, WNMU strives to build sustainable, respectful relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities....

Associate Professor of Bilingual Education and Spanish Gregory Robinson Guerra recently gave a presentation at an international conference on reading at the Central Regional University of Azuero in Panama. Invited to participate by the conference’s organizer, Robinson Guerra presented on Central American short stories. In “Characteristics of Central American Short Stories of the 20th Century,” he focused on several twentieth century authors—including the Panamanian writer Rogelio Sinán—and provided a method of narrative analysis that could be applied to other works. Explained Robinson Guerra, “I analyzed the stories and pulled some of the ways the author writes—about characters, how they create the scenarios, what is the time of the narration.” Robinson Guerra, who is from Panama and specializes in Central American short stories, said his presentation was well received. “I showed the frame that I used to analyze the stories,” he said. “I had a lot of...

By David Abbey and Ronnie Birdsong Nelson Mandela said it best, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This fall, voters can invest nearly $230 million in our state’s public colleges, universities, and specialty schools serving blind, deaf, visually impaired or hard of hearing students without raising their property tax rates. Supporting General Obligation Bond 3 would provide funding to pay for renovations, safety improvements, technology upgrades and replacement of decades-old facilities at educational institutions in 29 communities across 23 counties throughout New Mexico. It would also create an estimated 2,300 new jobs. A certificate, two-year or four-year degree makes financial sense for our students. Research shows individuals with an associate’s degree earn about $141 more a week than those who have a high school diploma. At the same time, bachelor’s degree holders earn about 86% more, on average, than individuals...